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Woodworker needs some help

09-28-2012, 06:16 PM

Guys, looking for some advice.

I have the need for attaching 3/16" and 1/4" diameter sst rod in a grid pattern. Looking for a fast and reliable means to do this. With my limited knowledge of welding, it seems like if I could rig up the tips of a spot welder to have good contact on these rounds, and I could get good force to these tips, I could spot weld these joints.

Comment

Thanks Bob for the reply, but I don't have a spot welder yet. I'm just trying to get input on if a spot welder could do the job, what size I need and if two steel rods at 90 degrees have enough contact area for a spot welder to work....?

Comment

Did a real quick and dirty test with my Miller LMSW-52 on 1/4" diam stainless rod.

Pieces are about 3" long.

Tried to get good close up photos but the depth of field suffers the closer I got.

Anyway, one spot weld like this is easy. Took about 1 second.
Drawback is that you get burn marks on the outside surfaces.
I was sloppy so it may be better with practice.
Trade-off is that a cleaner looking short dwell time spot weld may not be as strong as a longer one.

My LMSW-52 has 12" tongs which reduces the amperage at the tips but I had more than enough power.
If I had held the switch down longer, I would have melted both rods.

Stainless has higher electrical resistance than carbon steel so this may make a slight difference.

I think the hardest part may to align your pieces and to hold them securely between the spot welder tips.
May require machining a special set so they won't slip.